Six people have died and eight are injured, one of them seriously, following the detachment of a part of the Marmolada glacier, in the Dolomites (Italian Alps) and it is not ruled out that there may be several missing, sources from the EFE confirmed. Alpine rescue in the Veneto region (north).
Eight injured and six dead were left by the detachment of a part of the Marmolada glacier in the Italian Alps.
Meanwhile, the evacuation of the area is taking place in case new landslides occur and possible victims are sought.
The Veneto regional councilor for civil protection, Gianpaolo Bottacinreported that there might be ten missing but this news has not yet been confirmed, nor has the nationality of the deceased and injured been reported.
The detachment, according to the first information from Salvamento Alpino, would have occurred near Punta Rocca, on the ascent route of the normal route to reach the summit where there were several hikers.
The bodies of the victims that were recovered from the ice have been transferred to the sports palace in the nearby town of Canazei and a team of psychologists has been activated to assist the relatives.
Continued searches to verify the presence of others are complicated because more landslides are feared but 5 helicopters have been deployed in the area with systems to detect bodies under the avalanches and canine units to check the presence of other people.
While the injured, one of them in critical condition, have been transferred to hospitals in Trento, Bolzano, Belluno and Treviso.
Precisely this Saturday in the Marmolada the temperature record was reachedwith regarding 10 degrees at the top, explained the president of the Veneto region, where part of the Marmolada mountain group is located.
Zaia and the president of the Trentino region, Maurizio Fugatti, are constantly following the emergency and Fugatti is arriving in Canazei, where an operational point has been established to manage the emergency.
According to testimonies, the piece of glacier split at two points, known as seracs, and generated a landslide almost three hundred meters wide of ice and stones that devastated everything in its path.
“We heard a loud noise, typical of a landslide, then we saw a kind of avalanche made up of snow and ice descending at great speed and then I realized that something serious had happened. With binoculars you can see the break from here”, one of the managers of the Castiglioni Marmolada refuge, who witnessed the accident, explained to the media.
